Coin feeding device



1969 B. J. PERSSON COIN FEEDING DEVICE Filed Oct. 12, 1967 Sheet of 2 1969 B. J. PERSSON COIN FEEDING DEVICE Sheet Filed Oct. 12, 1967 United States Patent 14,27 8/ 66 U.S. Cl. 133-3 Int. Cl. G07d 1/00; B65g 29/02 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A coin feeding drum having an inclined rotating disc as the bottom thereof. Pins mounted on the disc push coins along with the disc up onto a further inclined sorting track, the pins being received initially in slots in the track and gradually disappearing beneath the track.

The present invention relates to a coin feeding device intended to receive a great number of coins, and to feed those coins one after another to a coin sorting device, said feeding device including a hopper, one side of which comprises a rotating disc provided with coin drivers.

The coin feeding drum according to my invention is characterized by the fact that the coin drivers consist of pins or the like extending outwardly from the rotating disc, and in that said disc is inclined in such a way in relation to a coin deflecting plate, that the pins, when rotating, are able to run into slits, provided in the coin deflecting plate and via those slits disappear under the plate, and at the same time the coins are fed up upon the plate and travel further along a desired path.

Preferably the rotating disc has grooves between the pins that are concentric in relation to the central point of the disc, and the coin deflecting plate has finger-like extensions between its slits, said extensions extending down into said concentric grooves of the disc so as to lift the coins from the underside. The coin drivers are preferably made resilient by being fixed to spring leaves on the rear side of the disc, extending through axial holes in the disc.

Thanks to my invention a coin feeding device is provided, which is able to Work at very high speeds without any risk of jamming of the coins. In similar known machines said risk is on the other hand great, and one does not dare to use high speeds, especially due to the risk that the coins by jamming may be hurled away as projectiles. For the same reason, it has heretofore been necessary to design the hopper as a protective plate which has greatly restricted the observation possibility into the hopper. Thanks to the present invention both technical and aesthetical points of view may be incorporated into the design of the hopper. v

The invention will hereinafter be described with reference to the attached drawings which by the way of an example, showing one preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows a front view of a part of a coin counting machine in accordance with my invention. FIG. 2 shows, partly in section, a side view of the same machine. FIG. 3 is a section along III--III in FIG. 1, showing a detail of the disc and pins.

In the drawings the reference numeral 1 refers to the front wall of a coin counting machine. The wall 1 is inclined, as may be best seen from FIG. 2.

The wall 1 is provided with a circular hole 2 in which a rotatable disc 3 is arranged. Said disc 3 defines one wall of a coin hopper that is also defined by a bent sheet 4, made from steel, plastic or the like. The disc 3 is inclined not only in relation to the vertical and horizontal planes but also in relation to the wall 1. The disc 3 is attached "ice to the shaft of the driving motor 8 which is in turn attached to a support plate 7, that by bolts 5 and threaded spacer means 6 is attached to the wall 1.

Directly on the front wall 1 a deflecting plate 9' is fixed, said plate being on its front side provided with two deflecting bars 10 and 11. The deflecting plate 9 is at its front edgein relation to the direction of the rotationprovided with four slits 12, 13, 14 and 15, which between themselves form finger-like extensions 16. Said extensions 16 extend down into grooves 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 in the disc 3. The thickness of the bar 10 is chosen less than the smallest coin thickness.

Besides said grooves 17-21 the disc 3 is provided with a number of pins 22 between the grooves, said pins 22 running, when the disc rotates, into the slits 1315 of the deflecting plate 9. Thereafter the pins 22 disappear under said plate 9 due to the angle of divergence at the upper portion of the device.

FIG. 3 shows how the pins 22 are arranged through axial holes 23 and attached to spring leaves 24 at the rear side of the disc 3. The spring leaves 24 are fixed to the disc 3 by means of screws 25. Preferably, a row of three pins 22 is attached to one and the same spring leaf, and arranged in such a way in relation to each other and in relation to the deflecting bars 10 and 11, that coins of common sizes cannot become jammed in the device.

The illustrated coin feeding device is used in the following way. Firstly, a great number of coins is poured into the hopper defined by the bent sheet 4 and the disc 3. The coins are caught at the bottom of the hopper by the pins 22 and brought up upon the deflecting plate 9. Thereafter the pins 22 have fulfilled their purposes and disappear under the deflecting plate. By virtue of the speed given by the pins the coins continue to travel over the outside surface of the deflecting plate and between deflecting bars 10 and 11, which serve to guide the coins onto a sorting rail 26. From this rail the coins roll on to the deflecting knives 27 and 28 which are adjusted to different coin sizes, said knives causing the coins to fall down into coin tubes 29 and 30.

Due to the fact that the disc 3 and the deflecting plate 9 are inclined in relation to each other and due to the fact that the plate 9 with its extensions 16 extends down into the grooves 17-21 of the disc 3, the coins are fed over a gradual crossover which is not dependent on any special tolerances. The passage between the deflecting plate 9 and the sorting rail 26, on the other hand, has to be carefully adjusted. However, this adjustment may easily be made, since those two details are stationary details. Even in this respect the device according to the invention has great advantages in relation to previously known constructions.

The invention is of course not restricted to the specific embodiment described above, but may be varied within the scope of the following claims. The spring arrangement of the pins 22, for example, may be made in many different ways. Furthermore, the form and the size of the different details have to be adjusted to the kind of coins intended to be sorted. The inner groove 21 of the disc 3 in the shown embodiment, for example, is made narrower than the grooves 17-20 to prevent larger Swedish coins, such as 5 ore coins or 2 crown coins, from standing up on their edges in the groove resting adjacent the edge 31. Also the width of the other grooves as well as their mutual positions may be varied.

The coin feeding device of this invention is preferably intended to be used in a coin sorting machine together with the devices set forth in my copending application Ser. No. 674,871, filed on Oct. 12, 1967.

I claim:

1. A coin feeding device which is designed to receive a great number of coins and to feed those coins one at 3 a time to a coin sorting device, said coin feeding device comprising:

(a) a hopper,

(b) one side of said hopper comprising a rotating disc,

(0) said rotating disc being provided with coin driving means comprising at least one pin extending outwardly from the surface of said rotating disc,

(d) a coin deflecting plate positioned in front of at least a portion of said rotating disc,

(e) said coin deflecting plate containing a slit through which each pin in said rotating disc can pass during rotation,

(f) said deflecting plate also having finger-like extensions that cooperate with said rotating disc in order to transfer coins from the surface of said disc to the surface of said deflecting plate.

2. A coin feeding device according to claim 1 wherein said rotating disc is provided with a plurality of concentric grooves into which said finger-like extensions at least partially extend.

3. A coin feeding device according to claim 2 wherein the inner groove of the disc is narrower than the other grooves in the disc in order to prevent larger coins from extending with their edges into said groove.

4. A coin feeding device according to claim 1 wherein said deflecting plate covers an upper quarter sector of the rotating disc.

5. A coin feeding device according to claim 1 wherein said disc is arranged in a circular hole in an inclined wall of the coin sorting device, and said hopper is arranged to extend with a narrow edge into said hole adjacent the lower edge of the disc, whereby the wall of the hopper at the bottom of the hopper and in front of the grooves and the pins of the disc is inclined in relation to the disc in such a way that coins standing at this place are contacted by the pins of the disc.

6. A coin feeding device according to claim 5 wherein the disc is positioned so that it is inclined in relation to the inclined wall of the coin sorting device and said deflecting plate is fixed directly to said inclined wall and has the same angle as said wall.

7. A coin feeding device according to claim 1 wherein the pins are resiliently mounted in the disc so that in the event of jamming the pins may be pressed backwardly through the disc.

8. A coin feeding device according to claim 7 wherein the pins are positioned through axial holes located in the disc and are fixed to spring leaves at the rear-side of the disc.

9. A coin feeding device according to claim 1 wherein the deflecting plate is provided along its upper edge with a deflecting bar against which the coins may be pressed due to centrifugal force and which is arranged to guide the coins out to a sorting rail.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,210,622 1/1917 Fefell et al. 1333 2,635,730 4/1953 Sedkula 1338 X 2,750,949 6/1956 Kulo et al. 1338 2,886,045 5/1959 Brown et al. 1333 3,073,462 1/1963 Flanagan 198-212 X FOREIGN PATENTS 82,337 11/1956 Denmark. 67,201 7/1948 Denmark.

SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Primary Examiner.

U. S. Cl. X.R. 

